EW! Right? Well, I can stomach it, and was thinking it might help me with my portion control until I can figure out how to portion control myself... I have an issue with overeating as many of us do... And was wondering if this method helped anyone.

Ask yourself this, is this something I can do for life ? Dieting is not something you do and stop when you reach goal. We need to learn how to eat and do it in a way that is acceptable to do for life. If you go on the baby food diet, what will happen when you stop it, will you regain weight ? It is better to have a sensible food plan that you can follow without restrictions, such as only eating certain foods, these kinds of plans are usually not sustainable.

I looked up the "baby food diet." The plan is 14 servings of baby food a day, plus "one sensible meal." If you can figure out what it takes to eat "one sensible meal," I promise you can figure out what it takes to eat three sensible meals and maybe a sensible snack or two a day, without having to resort to gimmicks like 14 jars of baby food.

Fad diets like this make it seem like food has to be penance; your sentence for the crime of being overweight is to eat 14 jars of baby food a day. You don't have to do that to yourself, and more importantly you have to understand that doing that to yourself is nothing but the road to lapses, regains, and feelings of failure.

You will do so, so much better in the long run if you just start learning now how to lose weight on real, healthy, tasty grown-up food. If you don't know how to do that, people here can help you. I have lost >110 pounds that way, eating controlled amounts of actual food, no gimmicks. So have lots and lots and lots of other posters here who are ready and willing to help you get started.

Plus, you won't have to explain to your friends, family, and coworkers why you are eating 14 jars of baby food a day!

__________________
High weight: 275 (August 2009) *** Low weight: 155 (October 2012)
Today, working off a partial regain. Current weight: 189.
Goals:
* Make the best choice I can make, with every choice.
* Remember that the temptation in front of me is not the last of its kind that I will ever see; say "I'll pass today."
* Say "no!" to my whiny inner five-year-old.

Ask yourself this, is this something I can do for life ? Dieting is not something you do and stop when you reach goal. We need to learn how to eat and do it in a way that is acceptable to do for life. If you go on the baby food diet, what will happen when you stop it, will you regain weight ? It is better to have a sensible food plan that you can follow without restrictions, such as only eating certain foods, these kinds of plans are usually not sustainable.

^^That!

Why put yourself through something unsustainable rather than learning healthy eating habits that will help you take the weight off and KEEP it off?

- One of the GOOD things the baby food diet has going for it is the idea of eating lots of pureed vegetables. That's really easy for you to do yourself, but make it fresher and much cheaper. A head of cauliflower makes delicious puree, so do peas, carrots, spinach, YUM. You can make them into thick pureed soups with different style seasonings too- Mediterranean, Indian, French etc. Vegetable soups have tons of nutrients and fill you up quickly.

- If you want to learn portion control, the BEST wakeup call is a food scale. They are not expensive, and honestly probably end up saving you money in the long run from reduced portion sizes ^_^. If you pre-weigh your food a few times to learn what a spaghetti serving size is, a peanut butter serving size, etc, you'll learn very quickly not to ever overestimate again! There's a pretty convincing YouTube video on it that I just posted on another thread actually. It's short, but if you don't want to watch the whole thing just skip to 1:30: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

-14 individual jars of baby food a day is a heck of a toll on the environment.- shipping it, the glass containers, etc. Making your own purees is fast, local, and sustainable. Just food for thought.

I had girls in college swear by this 'diet'. It was disturbing to be watching a movie with them, they decide to go get a snack, and they come back with a jar of baby food. Like Indi said, I think you could do it yourself (like with the magic bullet), and that one reason I would is to get fresh veggies and fruit into your diet. I would probably only eat different kinds of applesauce though...pureed carrots and spinach sound creepy to me.

__________________[Adapted from a monologue in Connie and Carla (2004)]

I have a confession to make. ...I am... an EATER!…This is what America needs—to show that real women are real women. If you're naturally slim, fine. Okay, but come on! Starving ourselves to get thin. No hips, no breasts...until we look just like little boys. Girlfriends, big or small, thin or fat, worship that body. It's the only one you've got!

I've read Tracy Anderson's book, the trainer who made this diet up or atleast started the trend. She has you eat pureed foods for some of the diet... I don't think it's actual jars of baby food you buy in the grocery store. I see alot of blogs saying it's jars of baby food but I haven't read any articles of her saying to eat commercial baby food.

So if you are eating pureed fresh fruits and vegetables, it doesn't sound all that bad. I watched "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" last week and 2 guys went juice fasting for 60 days, some went for 10 days living on only fresh juice! Atleast with the pureed food you'd still be getting some fiber

I agree with ringmaster and indiblue, Pureed fruits and veggies are actually super healthy. It is the best thing to promote vitamin absorption. But eating out of baby food jars all day? Really? That is sort of silly.

Many are drinking smoothies, which is essentially the same idea. You could also make your own split pea, or pumpkin, or tomato and carrot soups.

I actually think the idea of incorporating pureed food into your diet, if it is for health reasons, isn't a bad idea. But, you can't life off of pureed food alone.... you could fit it sensibly into your others meals - maybe have whole grain rice, a protein, and a side of pureed pumpkin with ginger?

Two things I do know for sure:

If you eat a meal without some sort of protein, you will be very hungry again in a very short period of time. So, doing pure baby food to help you control your intake will backfire. But, what about a chicken breast and a serving of pureed veggies?

Soup digests slower and will make you feel full (water content). What if you do a pureed tomato soup with your meals?

Anyway - if I were you, I'd just brainstorm ways I could make the "babyfood" diet not so extreme - how to make it something you could picture doing forever.

I agree with everyone here. If your problem is portion control, and convenience, you could prepare food once a week and freeze your portions of soups and entrees. I'm a huge fan of smoothies, soups, etc. Lowfat yougurt is also a quick, portion controlled item with some protein as well.

Also, why eat a jar of pureed peaches when you can eat a peach?
I would opt for an occasional frozen "light" entree. This would be a better representation of a proper portion size than a jar of baby food.

I think you're on the right track with your concern over portion size. We've all been there. But as someone said earlier, if you can't do it for the rest of your life, it won't matter in the long run. We're all here trying to change our lifestyles so that we can not only lose, but maintain (simple, but not easy!).

You need to learn how much a true serving size is of real food and learn how to portion it yourself. Lots of info out there on how much a 3oz serving of meat is to how much a serving of pasta is to what a serving of watermelon is, etc. You can also buy a big bag/box of whatever and when you get home portion it out into zip-loc bags so you can just grab and go and know you're eating just one serving. But in the end it's you who are in control of what and how much you eat.

__________________

^^ Spiney Norman!

Strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands
and then eat just one of those pieces.